I haven't played the game myself, unfortunately, but I've heard that Kaim Argonar fits pretty well.
Many Megami protagonists could count, if you make the right choices. The downside is, since said choices make your character Genre Savvy, that also makes him/her the Only Sane Man.
Also, the player characters of Trauma Center: New Blood. Unlike Derek, who is fresh out of med school, Markus and Valerie are experienced doctors.
edited 2nd Jan '11 8:07:53 PM by TsundeRay
http://twitter.com/raydere | http://raydere.tumblr.comI'd nominate Solid Snake, at least from the first two Metal Gear Solid games. Not only did he behave like an expert in his field, but also showed that he wasn't your typical brainless grunt whenever talking to Naomi or Nastasha. He only got somewhat dumber in MGS 4, but that could be attributed to his age and the sense of disillusionment of his own ideals he had in that game.
Another one would be Professor Layton from his own game series, even his apprentice.
Plus, watch Freemans Mind, he demonstrates his intelligence there, sorta.
I'd nominate Welkin Gunther for the title.
edited 3rd Jan '11 1:54:52 AM by Belle-Mage
I'm not a Pokemon Trainer, you zetta sons of digits!Mao from Disgaea3 gets my nomination. Sure, it's pure Genre Savvy. But hell. It works. Depending on how you play him/her Shepard can be pretty smart too, solving as many problems with words as with guns.
You are not alone.Isaac Clarke. Bad ass engineer. He doesn't talk much but back story reveals he is quite accomplished.
Layton's almost too obvious. :P
Jade also gets major props for being quick-thinking and generally sensible in addition to her usual game-hero combo of bravery and badassitude.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaDepends on your definition of "intelligent" just because you can hack a bunch of computers doesn't mean you'll be any "smarter" then a person who can solve a rubix cube in eight seconds, while hacking and stuff may be hard it is not really a full measure of "intelligence" the only very vague measure of intelligence we do have is an IQ test so saying that Mao has an IQ of 3mil makes him smart not counting the value of "street" smarts and the like.
edited 4th Jan '11 4:42:27 PM by WORLDTree
Agreed on Deus Ex. The moment that did it for me was just before the final level when everybody's stoked that you've managed to prevent the missile strike on Savage and you're all about to return to base and regroup… Except J.C. is all “Screw that, I'm retargeting it to nuke the top off Page's Area 51 hideyhole so I can stomp in through the glowing wreckage and finish things now. Let's blow this dump, Jock.”
The Roivas Family, Kazuya Mishima and his family, Agent G, Issac Washington, CJ and his ilk, the Raptor from Jurassic Park, The Evil Genius, Olimar, the Hit Man...
...come to think of it, since when are video game characters known for being stupid? They mostly don't know what you don't know. Think about it, Mario, The Halo Master Chief, Jak and Daxter, Alex Mercer, Laura Croft, Pacman, intelligence may not be their defining trait, but neither is stupidity. Dumb Protagonist seems much more prevalent in cartoons and comic books.
edited 6th Jan '11 5:39:57 PM by Cider
Modified Ura-nage, Torture RackThe thing about most of them is that they're Xanatos Suckers to a fault, totally lacking in initiative or motivation, so they function more as Pinball Protagonists than real characters. The PC generally knows everything I do as a player, but they usually come across as such patsies compared to whoever's doing Mission Control.
edited 6th Jan '11 10:17:18 PM by EricDVH
I think Barney Calhoun counts, if only because he seems to be smarter than the rest of the security guards at Black Mesa.

Intelligence is not a trait found too often in video game protagonists. It would make it harder for the writers to justify them blindly following their Voice with an Internet Connection from objective to objective, repeating what other people say for exposition, and constantly being duped, betrayed, or used by the bad guys, plus, it would make programmers to be more creative in the character's behavior. For the most part, we don't care- we just want him to blow things up.
But I was thinking about Deus Ex's ending and how it basically turns the decision of the fate of the world over to the gruff-voiced, gun-toting player character, and what a terrible idea that would be ordinarily. But then I realized that JC Denton is not your ordinary shooter protagonist. No matter how badass Master Chief or Lara Croft is, I wouldn't trust them with that responsibility.
But after playing the game as JC, I felt completely comfortable making that choice, because he's clearly an extremely intelligent person. Not just book-smart, but cunning, perceptive, independent-thinking, and a tactical genius (unless you play the game poorly). He often seeks clever nonviolent solutions (at least in the average playthough), is a skilled hacker, and uses smart tactics in combat instead of charging ahead. He never lets his manipulative Mission Control characters with their own agendas use him as a pawn, debates federalism with bartenders and philosophy with A.I.s, and so on. And it occurred to me that JC Denton is probably one of the smartest player characters in any video game, and almost certainly one of the smartest P Cs in a shooter.
So I'm curious- are there any other video game P Cs who strike you as that intelligent? Who do you think is the smartest? And by smartest, I'm talking about characters who legitimately feel really smart and demonstrate it, not just "the manual says he has an IQ of 300".
Any genre- RTS, RPG, puzzle games,... discuss.
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